1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a layer-forming method and a layer-forming apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a radiation detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the radiation detector, such a structure has been known that a suppressing layer for suppressing an interfacial crystallization of a recording photoconductive layer is provided between a first electrode and the recording photoconductive layer, and this suppressing layer is formed of an organic polymer layer. Here, this organic polymer layer has an insulating property against the charges of opposite polarity to the charges that move through the first electrode in recording image information, and an electrical conductivity to the charges of equal polarity to the charges that move through the first electrode (see JP-A-2004-165480, for example).
According to the radiation detector having the above configuration, remaining charges in the suppressing layer caused when radiation images are recorded and read by using a large radiation to be reduced, and also deterioration in sensitivity, remaining of ghost images, etc. caused due to the remaining charges to be prevented.
An organic polymer layer such as PVK, or the like, for example, is employed as the material of the organic polymer layer, and the suppressing layer is formed on the surface of the photoconductive layer by the dipping method, or the like. As a solvent, an unflammable solvent such as methylene chloride, or the like or a flammable solvent such as 1-1-dichloroethane, or the like is employed. Regarding such layer formation, the technology to employ the ink jet method that is known in the printing field has been proposed recently.
In the printing field, in order to prevent deterioration in impact position precision of the ink jet droplet on account of charges of a printed matter, the technology to remove the charges from the printed matter by spraying ions produced by the corona discharge together with an air onto the printed matter has been known (see JP-A-6-246910, for example).
Also, in the printing field, in order to prevent the nozzle clogging of the ink jet head due to the adhesion of dusts, similarly the technology to reduce the entry of dusts into the case by creating an air flow that is directed from the inside of the case in which the ink jet head is placed to the outside has been known (see JP-A-2003-220695, for example).
In forming the layer on a surface of the base material, the dusts adhered to the surface of the base material exert a bad influence upon the layer formation and also exert a bad influence upon the performance of the base material on which the layer is formed. For example, when the organic polymer layer is stacked in such a situation that the dusts adhered to the surface of the photoconductive layer are not removed, detectable defects occur at the dust locations in the radiation detector.
In the technology disclosed in JP-A-6-246910, such advantages can be expected that the dusts adhered electrostatically to the surface of the base material are easily removed and also new dusts are hard to adhere electrostatically to the surface of the base material. However, some dusts adhere to the surface of the base material in a non-electrostatic manner, so that it is expected that the entry of dusts into the case should be suppressed. Also, in the technology disclosed in JP-A-6-246910, because a corona discharge is brought about upon removing the charges from the base material, it is needed to restrict the use of the flammable solvent.
In the technology disclosed in JP-A-6-246910, the entry of dusts into the case can be reduced, but the dusts that have already been adhered to the surface of the base material cannot be removed. In this case, in JP-A-2003-220695, in order to prevent the nozzle clogging of the ink jet head, an electric field is applied such that the dusts adhered to the surface of the base material are not left from the surface of the base material.